Combined pump and cutting apparatus

ABSTRACT

A combined pumping and cutting apparatus for a toilet system where sanitary napkins and other nondissolving materials are sheared as they pass through the apparatus. The apparatus includes two chambers separated by a tube which directs the material to and cooperates with a rotor to cause shredding by a scissor action; the scissor action being accomplished by the stationary tube and the rotating rotor.

United States atent 11 1 Kemper 1 51 Mar. 27, 1973 1541 COMBINED PUMPAND CUTTING APPARATUS James M. Kemper, Los Angeles, Calif.

Monogram Industires, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif.

Filed: May 28, 1971 Appl. No.: 147,810

[75] Inventor:

Assignee:

US. Cl ..241/46.02, 241/4611 Int. (:1. ..B02b 1/00 I Field 0%Search...24l/46 R, 46.02, 46.06, 46.1 1,

[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Von Eiff et al. "241/46113,323,650 6/1967 Kilbane, Jr. ..24l/46.l7 X

3,361,369 l/l968 Ruble ..24l/46.l7 3,380,673 4/l9 68 Van Lenten et al..24l/l 91 3,429,513 2/1969 Gribble ....24l/46 R 3,589,623 6/l97l-Belden ..24i/46.02

Primary ExaminerGranville Y. Custer, Jr.

Attorney-(30love,Kleinberg Morganstern 571 ABSTRACT A combined pumpingand cutting apparatus for a toilet system where sanitary napkins andother nondissolving materials are sheared as they pass through theapparatus. The apparatus includes two chambers separated by a tube whichdirects the material to and cooperates with a rotor to cause shreddingby a scissor action; the scissor action being accomplished by thestationary tube and the rotating rotor.

7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures COMBINED PUMP AND CUTTING APPARATUSBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The presentinvention relates to a combination pump and cutting apparatus and, moreparticularly, to an apparatus for a toilet system which can pump wasteproducts as well as cut or shred solid products such as sanitary napkinsand certain types of toilet paper while still being economicallymanufactured and assembled for mass production.

2. Description of the Prior Art There is a continuing requirement for asmall, lowcost pump to handle the waste disposal of a toilet system suchas that installed in vehicles, i.e., campers, mobile'homes, boats, etc.and that installed at locations where it is uneconomical or unnecessaryto provide permanent facilities such as in parks, camps, marinas, etc.Present portable or outdoor type toilet systems generally comprise abowl assemblywhich is used to receive waste products from a user, alarge tank and means for circulating the liquid contents of the tank toenable the flushing of the bowl assembly. These toilet systems arecommonly referred to as recirculating toilets. Usually a chemical isadded to the tank to improve sanitation and control odor. Another typeof toilet system simply discharges. the waste products rather thanrecycle the liquid portion thereof. Because of the increased attentiontoward pollution control, it is becoming necessary that these types oftoilet systems macerate the waste or other products normally disposed ofin a toilet system, and properly mix the products with chemicals.

A problem with such a recirculating or nonrecirculating system is thatof the disposed material interfering with the pumping action; that is,such material other than human waste products may clog the pump andthereby incapacitate the system. Efforts have been made to alleviatethis problem as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,673 which includes animpeller having knife-like edges for the purpose of cutting the disposalproducts as well as pumping the products from the bowl assembly.However, certain types of products such as sanitary napkins, which aremade of gauze, are

not satisfactorily handled by the pump apparatus of the above-mentionedpatent.

It is, of course, to be understood that any apparatus developed must besuffieiently economical in operation as well as in manufacture andassembly to allow production for mass marketing at a reasonable price.

SUMMARY OF THE'INVENTION The above-mentioned problems have been solvedby the present invention which provides an apparatus for pumping aliquid and cutting solids carried thereby the cutting blade and an endof the tube and pumped to the outlet opening by the pumping blade. Whatoccurs is a scissor action between the blade and the tube end so that amajor drawback of the prior art is overcome. In addition, the inventionincludes the subcombination of the blade having two portions, one forcutting and the other for pumping. Another part of the invention is asubcombination of the tube having a sharpened end for use with atoiletsystem.

It is a general aim of the present invention to provide a combinationpump and cutting apparatus which effectively and efficiently shredssolid type material and pumps this material and liquid.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a combined pumpand cutting apparatus for a toilet system which will not become cloggedwith the products being passed through the apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus whichcuts and pumps a solid carrying liquid and which is simply constructed,reliable and inexpensive to manufacture and assemble.

Still another aim of the present invention is to provide an apparatusfor a toilet system which directs a flow of liquid and solids against acutting blade and which cooperates with the cutting blade to effect ascissor action upon the solid type material.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus fora toilet system which includes a simply constructed device for cuttingas well as pumpingwaste products and other material.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent .by reference to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I is a perspective view, partiallybroken away, of a combined pump and cutting apparatus of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional plan view of a portion of the apparatus shown inFIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a shearing tube of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a rotor having. a cutting portion and apumping portion.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT While the present invention issusceptible of various modifications and alternative constructions, anillustrative embodiment is shown in the drawing and will herein bedescribed in detail. It should be understood, however, that it is notthe intention to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed;but, on the contrary, the intention .is to cover all modifications,equivalents and alternative constructions falling within the spirit andscope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is generally illustrated a combinedpumping and cutting apparatus 10 having a housing 12 divided into twoportions, an inlet portion 14 and an outlet portion 16. Connected to theapparatus is a housing 18 enclosing a motor (not shown) which isconnected to two electrical wires 20 to allow the motor to be connectedto a power source. Protruding from the other end of the motor housing 18is a shaft 23 which terminates with a rotor 22. Immediately adjacent therotor is a shearing tube 24 of suitable hardness, which is connected tothe inlet and outlet portions of the housing 12 and positioned through awall 25 of the housing.

Briefly in operation, waste products as well as other materials commonlyflushed through a toilet system is received from a bowl assembly 30whereupon these products enter a chamber portion 32 of the inlet portion14 of the housing. The products are then directed through the tube, andthrough the rotational path of the rotor 22 which occurs in a chamberportion 34 of the outlet portion 16 of the housing. The shredded solidand liquid material is then passed through an outlet tube 36 to acollection tank 38 if the system is a recirculating one; if the systemis not recirculating, then the waste products are disposed as indicatedby the dotted arrow 40 to appropriate waste receiving facilities, suchas conventional sewage systems. Upon the next operation of a flushingdevice (not shown), a pump 42 is activated to start the flushing cycleanew with a predetermined quantity of filtered liquid pumped from thecollectiontank 38 to the bowl assembly 30.

It is an important object of the present invention to efficiently andeffectively pump the liquid portion of v the waste products and shredany solid type material which may be flushed through the toilet system.All of this is to ensure that the rotor 22 does not become disabled orclogged by material which does not ordinarily easily dissolve in aliquid. Further, an important object of this invention is to achieve thepumping and cutting with a simply constructed, reliable mechanism whichcan be inexpensively manufactured and assembled. As mentioned, a majordrawback in the prior art as exemplified by the above-mentioned UnitedStates Patent is the handling of the more difficultly cut material suchas sanitary napkins. The reason a sanitary napkin is hard to cut, forexample, is that it is made of a gauze material as opposed to certaintypes of toilet tissue which are designed to partially or fully dissolveor macerate by the wetting action of a liquid. Of course, other types oftoilet tissue or paper is of sufficient coarseness as to be almost asdifficult to cut or shred as gauze.

In the prior art, an attempt wasmade to cut this material by placing arotatable impeller within a chamber through which the waste product wasrequired to pass. However, this construction is analogous to anindividual attempting to cut a floating piece of material simply byswinging a knife at the material. Without anchoring or backing thematerial in some fashion, such a cutting action is highly inefficientand ineffective. In addition, because the impeller of the abovementionedpatent was designed primarily for cutting, it did not provide aneffective pump. Referring to FIG. 2, it is clear that the apparatus ofthe present invention solves this major problem by locating the tube 24so that an end 50 is positioned immediately adjacent the rotor 22. (Thegap between the tube and the rotor is exaggerated in FIG. 2 to moreclearly illustrate the apparatus.) Since all of the products which areflushed through the toilet system must pass through the tube in adirection from an end 52 toward the end 50, any product which is emittedfrom the end 50 is subjected to a scissor action by the cooperation ofthe end of the tube and the rotor.

The first portion 14 of the housing 12 is generally cylindrical formingthe cup-like chamber 32 with an.

inlet opening 53. The outlet portion 16 which forms the chamber 34 is acavity in communication with the outlet sleeve 36. The outlet portionincludes an outlet opening 56.

The two housing portions 14 and 16 are made of any suitable materialsuch as a synthetic resin with each having a mating flange such as theflange 62 of the portion 14 and the flange 64 of the portion 16 whichare abuttable and connected by suitable fasteners such as a threadedbolt. It is noted that. in this arrangement, waste products enter thehousing chamber 32 in a first direction which would be into the plane ofthe drawing as viewed in FIG. 2; this direction is then changed so thatthe wasteproducts move through the tube 24, pass the rotor whereupon thedirection is changed once again so as to move through the outlet sleeve36. The direction of movement through the tube 24 is perpendicular tothe direction of movement of the material through the inlet openingwhile the direction of movement through the outlet opening 56 is againperpendicular to each of the directions through the tube and the inletopening. Viewed in another way, if the movement through the inletopening 53 is considered parallel to the Z axis, movement through thetube 24 would be parallel to the X axis while movement through theoutlet sleeve 36 would be parallel to the Y axis, each of the axes, X, Yand 2, being perpendicular to each of the other axes.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the end 50 of the tube 24 is shown in moredetail and has an interior sharp corner 66, and an exterior sharp corner68. The corner 66 is formed by the intersection of the interior wall ofthe tube and the end 50 while the exterior corner 68 is formed by theintersection of the end 50 and the exterior wall of the tube. Theinterior sharp corner acts'as a scissor blade when used in cooperationwith the rotor.

Another important aspect of the present invention'is to provide a simpledevice which can act to cut as well as to pump material. Referring nowto FIG. 4, the rotor 22 is illustrated in more detail having afirstportion 70 which-has a sharp end 72 for cutting and a secondportion 74 with an end portion or paddle 76 that is bent at a rightangle for the purpose of pumping. The impeller or paddle blade is formedby bending the edge of the rotor second portion 74 in a right angleparallel to the radial axis of the rotor and into a plane parallel tothat p of the sharp end 72, as in the patent noted above.

A central opening 78 is provided to allow attachment of the rotor to theshaft 23, FIG. 2. As mentioned, the cutting portion 70 acts as a scissorwhen cooperating with the tube end 50; the cutting portion is balancedabout an axis of rotation by the pumping portion which functionsstrictly as a pump and thereby increases the efficiency andeffectiveness of each of the functions of the rotor. p

It is important to note the closeness of the tube end 50 and theposition of the rotor. The plane of rotation or rotational pathestablished by the rotor is 'immediately adjacent the tube end to anextent feasible by manufacturing tolerances. Thus, it has been foundthat a tolerance of 0.06 to0.l2 inches is easily achieved by knownmanufacturing and assembly techniques and yet provides the requiredscissor action on the part of the tube and the rotor.

and cutting a housing having an interior divided chamber,.an.

inlet opening and an outlet opening;

a rotor positioned within said chamber connected to a power source, saidrotor having at least two blades, a first blade having a sharp edge forcutting and a second blade for pumping; and

a. tube operatively positioned adjacent said first blade, within saidchamber for directing said liquid and solids from said inlet openingthrough the rotational path of said rotor and for shearing solidsbetween said first blade and an end of said tube the mixture beingpumped to the outlet opening by said second blade.

2. An apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said housing is dividedinto two chamber portions by a wall, one of said portions havingsaidrotor therein,'said tube extending through said wall.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inlet and outletopenings are positioned to direct said liquid through said inlet openingperpendicular to the direction through said outlet opening.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said tube is positionedto direct said liquid perpendicular. to each of the directions takenthrough said inlet and outlet openings.

5. A shearing tube for a pumping and cutting apparatus having inlet andoutlet openings, a chamber and a rotatable cutting blade, comprising atube located within the chamber having two ends, one of said ends beingpositioned immediately adjacent said cutting blade whereby'materialmoving through said tube is sheared between said tube end and saidcutting blade.

6. A shearing tube as claimed in claim 5, wherein said one end includesa sharp corner.

7. A rotor for a pumping and cutting apparatus having inlet and outletopenings and a chamber, said rotor comprising a cutting portion balancedby a pumping portion, said cutting portion including a sharpened bladeextending in the axial direction and said pumping portion including ablade having a right angle bend along the length, thereof and extendingin a direction opposite to that of said sharpened blade, said sharpenedblade and said pumping portion blade being substantially parallel.

1. An apparatus for pumping a liquid and cutting solids carried therebycomprising: a housing having an interior divided chamber, an inletopening and an outlet opening; a rotor positioned within said chamberconnected to a power source, said rotor having at least two blades, afirst blade having a sharp edge for cutting and a second blade forpumping; and a tube operatively positioned adjacent said first blade,within said chamber for directing said liquid and solids from said inletopening through the rotational path of said rotor and for shearingsolids between said first blade and an end of said tube the mixturebeing pumped to the outlet opening by said second blade.
 2. An apparatusas claimed in Claim 1, wherein said housing is divided into two chamberportions by a wall, one of said portions having said rotor therein, saidtube extending through said wall.
 3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein said inlet and outlet openings are positioned to direct saidliquid through said inlet opening perpendicular to the direction throughsaid outlet opening.
 4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein saidtube is positioned to direct said liquid perpendicular to each of thedirections taken through said inlet and outlet openings.
 5. A shearingtube for a pumping and cutting apparatus having inlet and outletopenings, a chamber and a rotatable cutting blade, comprising a tubelocated within the chamber having two ends, one of said ends beingpositioned immediately adjacent said cutting blade whereby materialmoving through said tube is sheared between said tube end and saidcutting blade.
 6. A shearing tube as claimed in claim 5, wherein saidone end includes a sharp corner.
 7. A rotor for a pumping and cuttingapparatus having inlet and outlet openings and a chamber, said rotorcomprising a cutting portion balanced by a pumping portion, said cuttingportion including a sharpened blade extending in the axial direction andsaid pumping portion including a blade having a right angle bend alongthe length, thereof and extending in a direction opposite to that ofsaid sharpened blade, said sharpened blade and said pumping portionblade being substantially parallel.